Falling Gasoline Prices Lead to Lowest Inflation Since 2008

Overall price change was modest in 2014, with the U.S. All Items Consumer Price Index posting its smallest increase since 2008. This was primarily the result of gasoline prices, which fell sharply over the latter part of the year. However, shelter and food price indexes accelerated in 2014. In this Beyond the Numbers article, we will look at price trends for major CPI components in 2014

Measures of Gasoline Price Change

[Excerpt] No prices are more visible to the public than gasoline prices. Even for people who don’t have to fill up a tank on a regular basis, gasoline prices are likely to be in their view, posted every day. In addition, no prices have more of an impact on short-run movements in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Gasoline prices are so much more volatile than other CPI components that, even though gasoline makes up less than 6 percent of the CPI, it is often the main source of monthly price movements in the all items index. Moreover, because they are so visible and gasoline is purchased so frequently, gasoline prices have a major impact on the perception of prices. Constantly seeing prices at the pump creep ever higher will often create a perception of broader inflation—and, of course, higher gasoline prices are likely to eventually have an impact on other prices as transportation costs increase. So, it is particularly important that gasoline price changes be measured accurately and reliably. Fortunately, gasoline is one of the few consumer goods for which there are many sources of price data. In fact, the ease of price collection makes it feasible for other government agencies and even private sources to create reliable measures. On the government side, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes extensive gasoline price data. Among private sources are the American Automobile Association, the Oil Price Information Service, and the Lundberg Survey. Furthermore, gasoline is one of the few nonfood items for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes an average price series as well as an index; the fact that gasoline is a relatively homogenous product makes meaningful average price data possible. This article examines three measures of gasoline prices: the BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) U.S. city average for all types of gasoline, the BLS CPI average price series for all types of gasoline, and the EIA Weekly Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices for all grades of gasoline. The purpose of the article is to identify how these measures have behaved over the 10-year period from December 2002 to December 2012

Consumer Price Index Data Quality: How Accurate is the U.S. CPI?

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is an estimate of the average change in prices over time paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and n the United States. The CPI is used extensively in many different ways, including three major uses: to adjust historical data, to escalate federal payments and tax brackets, and to adjust rents and wages. It directly affects the lives of Americans, so it must be as accurate as possible. But how accurate is it? If, for example, the CPI measures annual inflation as 2.3 percent, how confident can we be in that estimate? This issue of BEYOND THE NUMBERS looks at some different ways the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has responded to questions about the accuracy and precision of the CPI. The first section examines the sampling error of the CPI, and the second section discusses possible sources of bias in the index

Forced Convective Diffusion and Interphase Heat and Mass Transfer: Computations of Radial Functions, Temperature and Concentration Fields, and Presentation of Local and Average Nusselt and Sherwood Numbers

Theoretical calculations have been carried out for forced convective transport for uniform streaming and uniaxial and biaxial extensional axisymmetric flows past single spheres. Homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions, both of first and of second order have also been or are presently being treated. Orthogonality and other properties of Legendre functions have been used, together with introduction of an eigenfunction expansion, to reduce the mathematical description from a partial differential equation with variable coefficients, which is nonlinear for homogeneous second order chemical reactions, to a system of coupled ordinary differential equations for the radial modes. The numerical solutions of the latter have been obtained using the robust, adaptive grid algorithm of Pereyra and Lentini. Plots of the radial functions for given Peclet and Damkohler numbers give insight into the role and interaction of L and of r∞ (the number of terms necessary for convergence of the expansion and the finite radius at which the boundary conditions at infinity are imposed). From the radial modes, local and average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers, as well as the temperature and concentration fields, can be obtained. Plots of radial function families provide new insights that complement physicochemical understanding gained from isocontour plots of the temperature and concentration fields. Plots of local interphase transfer coefficients reflect the behavior of the flux field over the sphere surface and show how the average coefficients arise

Shear Wave Splitting Analyses in Tian Shan: Geodynamic Implications of Complex Seismic Anisotropy

The Tian Shan is a tectonically complex intracontinental orogenic belt situated between the Tarim Basin and the Kazakh Shield. The vast majority of the previous shear wave splitting (SWS) measurements were presented as station averages, which are only valid when the anisotropy structure can be approximated by a single layer of anisotropy with a horizontal axis of symmetry, i.e., a model of simple anisotropy. A variety of anisotropy-forming hypotheses have been proposed based on the station-averaged measurements. In this study, we measure the splitting parameters at 25 stations that recorded high-quality data from a wide back azimuthal range for the purpose of identifying and characterizing complex anisotropy. Among the 25 stations, 15 of them show systematic azimuthal variations in the observed splitting parameters with a 90° periodicity that is consistent with a model of two-layered anisotropy. The fast orientations of the upper layer range from 50° to 90° measured clockwise from the north, which are subparallel to the strike of the orogenic belt, and the splitting times are between 0.9 and 1.9 s. The corresponding values for the lower layer are -45° to -85° and 1.2-2.2 s, respectively. The remaining 10 stations demonstrate azimuthally invariant splitting parameters with strike-parallel fast orientations, and can be represented by a single layer of anisotropy with a horizontal axis of symmetry. We propose that the strike-parallel anisotropy is caused by lithospheric shortening, and anisotropy in the lower layer is associated with WNW-ward flow of asthenospheric material sandwiched between the subducting Tarim lithosphere and the thick Kazakh lithospheric root

On Hirschman and log-Sobolev inequalities in mu-deformed Segal-Bargmann analysis

We consider a deformation of Segal-Bargmann space and its transform. We study L^p properties of this transform and obtain entropy-entropy inequalities (Hirschman) and entropy-energy inequalities (log-Sobolev) that generalize the corresponding known results in the undeformed theory.Comment: 42 pages, 3 figure

A new class of large-amplitude radial-mode hot subdwarf pulsators

Using high-cadence observations from the Zwicky Transient Facility at low Galactic latitudes, we have discovered a new class of pulsating, hot compact stars. We have found four candidates, exhibiting blue colors (g − r ≤ −0.1 mag), pulsation amplitudes of >5%, and pulsation periods of 200–475 s. Fourier transforms of the light curves show only one dominant frequency. Phase-resolved spectroscopy for three objects reveals significant radial velocity, T eff, and log(g) variations over the pulsation cycle, which are consistent with large-amplitude radial oscillations. The mean T eff and log(g) for these stars are consistent with hot subdwarf B (sdB) effective temperatures and surface gravities. We calculate evolutionary tracks using MESA and adiabatic pulsations using GYRE for low-mass, helium-core pre-white dwarfs (pre-WDs) and low-mass helium-burning stars. Comparison of low-order radial oscillation mode periods with the observed pulsation periods show better agreement with the pre-WD models. Therefore, we suggest that these new pulsators and blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) could be members of the same class of pulsators, composed of young ≈0.25–0.35 M ⊙ helium-core pre-WDs.Published versio

Interpretation of positive troponin results among patients with and without myocardial infarction.

Measuring cardiac troponins is integral to diagnosing acute myocardial infarction (AMI); however, troponins may be elevated without AMI, and the use of multiple different assays confounds comparisons. We considered characteristics and serial troponin values in emergency department chest pain patients with and without AMI to interpret troponin excursions. We compared serial troponin in 124 AMI and non-AMI patients from the observational Performance of Triage Cardiac Markers in the Clinical Setting (PEARL) study who presented with chest pain and had at least one troponin value exceeding the 99th percentile of normal. Because 8 assays were used during data collection, we employed a method of scaling the troponin value to the corresponding assay\u27s 99th percentile upper reference limit to standardize the results. In 81 AMI patients, 96% had elevated troponin at the first test following initial elevation, compared to 73% of the 43 non-AMI patients